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The Princess of 72nd Street
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Kristen Sieh
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
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Publisher's summary
“That rare thing: a true underappreciated classic” (The New Yorker), about a smart and sensitive yet deeply troubled young woman fighting to live on her own terms
“Provocative . . . Almost half a century after it was first published, The Princess of 72nd Street sounds like a contemporary cry for freedom from the expectations of others.”—The Atlantic
“Kraf’s groovy, glimmering novel . . . deserves to be read—not for the nitty-gritty New York of it all but for her wry, confiding voice, which is funny, disarming and frequently ruthless.”—The New York Times
I am glad I have the radiance. This time I am wiser. No one will know. . . . The radiance drifts blue circles around my head. If I wanted to I could float up and through them. I am weightless. My brain is cool like rippling waves. Conflict does not exist. For a moment I cannot see—the lights are large orange flowers.
Ellen has two lives. A single artist living alone on New York’s Upper West Side in the 1970s, she periodically descends into episodes of what she calls “radiances.” While under the influence of the radiance, she becomes Princess Esmeralda, and West 72nd Street becomes the kingdom over which she rules. Life as Esmeralda is a colorful, glorious, and liberating experience for Ellen, who, despite the chaos and stigma these episodes can bring, relishes the respite from the confines of the everyday. And yet those around her, particularly the men in her life, are threatened by her incarnation as Esmeralda, and by the freedom that it gives her.
In what would turn out to be her final published work, Elaine Kraf tackles mental health and female agency in this utterly original, witty, and inventive novel. Provocative at the time of its publication in 1979 and thoroughly iconoclastic, The Princess of 72nd Street is a remarkable portrait of an unforgettable woman.
Critic reviews
“If one were to imagine a perfect specimen of a ‘forgotten classic’ by a woman writer from the 1960s and ’70s, you might come up with The Princess of 72nd Street. . . . . it’s a slender, accomplished and frequently funny work told from the perspective of a lively and bruised female consciousness . . . Its first-person narration feels essayistic, full of bold declarations about heterosexual love, gender roles and aesthetics.”—The Washington Post
“Elaine Kraf’s The Princess of 72nd Street lyrically details the seventh ‘radiance’ experienced by a young figure painter named Ellen who, during fits of seeming psychosis, believes herself to be the sovereign ruler of West 72nd between Broadway and Central Park. Ellen/Princess Esmerelda makes witty observations about creativity, femininity, and public life with a voice that feels startlingly modern.”—NYLON
“It’s hard for me to believe I only just read this book for the first time this winter. And I’m happy for everyone else that it’s getting reissued this year. The Princess of 72nd Street is a novel about mania, and how you can make the world beautiful for yourself through psychosis. I love the way Kraf writes, she jams so much into her sentences.”—Sophie Kemp, Document Journal
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Story
After thirteen months at war, Vittorio Gandy is haunted by memories. Once a gifted painter, now he can’t bear the vivid, bleeding colors on a canvas. His young son doesn’t remember him, and his wife, Valerie, is scared of him. But the most disconcerting change is in Vitto’s father, Robert Gandy, who has fallen from being a larger-than-life sculptor to a man whose heart has been broken by the death of his muse—Vitto’s mother. When Robert steals away in the night, Valerie, Vitto, and his new acquaintance and fellow veteran John go to the only place Robert might remember.
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Heartbreaking and heartwarming
- By Amazon Customer on 08-27-24
By: J. H. Markert, and others
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It's All Relative
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Magee
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Helena Crosby is on her way to be a bridesmaid... in her mom's wedding. Of course she's thrilled for her mom—the man she's marrying is great—but this family wedding is complicated. For starters, after twenty-eight years of it just being her and her mom, navigating family dynamics isn't exactly her strong suit, especially when she has nothing in common with said family. Take her soon-to-be stepsister, for example. They might be the same age, but Amelia is an always-put-together, successful architect whose hobby is organizing her pantry while Helena favors the messy bun.
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Happy Joy
- By claris on 09-21-24
By: Rachel Magee
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Cursed Bread
- A Novel
- By: Sophie Mackintosh
- Narrated by: Genevieve Gaunt
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Still reeling in the aftermath of the deadliest war the world had ever seen, the small town of Pont-Saint-Esprit collectively lost its mind. Some historians believe the mysterious illness and violent hallucinations were caused by spoiled bread; others claim it was the result of covert government testing on the local population.
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Poetic language
- By Anonymous User on 08-05-24
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Between the Sound and Sea
- By: Amanda Cox
- Narrated by: Rebecca Quinn Robertson
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Every family has its secrets. Josephina “Joey” Harris wouldn’t mind if her family still had a few of their own after a lawsuit tarnishes their name. When an opportunity opens to become a temporary keeper of a decommissioned lighthouse on a North Carolina island, she takes the opportunity to escape the scrutiny of her small town to oversee its restoration.
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The secrets
- By Kathy Beliveau on 09-20-24
By: Amanda Cox
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And So I Roar
- A Novel
- By: Abi Daré
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Tia accidentally overhears a whispered conversation between her mother—terminally ill and lying in a hospital bed in Port Harcourt, Nigeria—and her aunt, the repercussions will send her on a desperate quest to uncover a secret her mother has been hiding for nearly two decades. Back home in Lagos a few days later, Adunni, a plucky fourteen-year-old runaway, is lying awake in Tia’s guest room. Having escaped from her rural village in a desperate bid to seek a better future, she’s finally found refuge with Tia, who has helped her enroll in school.
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I’m not okay - no words to say how much I loved this
- By Amazon Customer on 09-16-24
By: Abi Daré
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Five-Star Stranger
- A Novel
- By: Kat Tang
- Narrated by: Julian Cihi
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
In an age where online ratings are all-powerful, Five-Star Stranger follows the adventures of a top-rated man on the Rental Stranger app—a place where users can hire a pretend fiancé, a wingman, or an extra mourner for a funeral. Referred to only as Stranger, the narrator navigates New York City under the guise of characters he plays, always maintaining a professional distance from his clients. But, when a nosy patron threatens to upend his long-term role as father to a young girl, Stranger begins to reckon with his attachment to his pretend daughter, her mother, and his own fraught past.
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Had good parts that kept me engaged.
- By C. Dad on 09-06-24
By: Kat Tang
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The Palace of Eros
- A Novel
- By: Caro De Robertis
- Narrated by: Caro De Robertis
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Young, headstrong Psyche has captured the eyes of every suitor in town and far beyond with her tempestuous beauty, which has made her irresistible as a woman yet undesirable as a wife. Secretly, she longs for a life away from the expectations and demands of men. When her father realizes that the future of his family and town will be forever cursed unless he appeases an enraged Aphrodite, he follows the orders of the Oracle, tying Psyche to a rock to be ravaged by a monstrous husband. And yet a monster never arrives.
By: Caro De Robertis
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Emma of 83rd Street
- By: Audrey Bellezza, Emily Harding
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Teddy Hamilton
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Beautiful, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse has lived twenty-three years in her tight-knit Upper East Side neighborhood with very little to distress or vex her…that is, until her budding matchmaking hobby results in her sister’s marriage—and subsequent move downtown. Now, with her sister gone and all her friends traveling abroad, Emma must start her final year of grad school grappling with an entirely new emotion: boredom. So when she meets Nadine, a wide-eyed Ohio transplant with a heart of gold and drugstore highlights to match, Emma not only sees a potential new friend but a new project.
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Great Update
- By Megan on 06-20-23
By: Audrey Bellezza, and others
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The Instrumentalist
- By: Harriet Constable
- Narrated by: Emilia Clarke
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Anna Maria has only known life inside the Pietà, an orphanage for children born of prostitutes. But the girls of the Pietà are lucky in a sense: most babies born of their station were drowned in the city’s canals. And despite the strict rules, the girls are given singing and music lessons from an early age. The most promising musicians have the chance to escape the fate of the rest: forced marriage to anyone who will have them.
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Republic of Music
- By D N Wolfe on 09-19-24